Jessie J performed in Camden on Saturday, at a free concert sponsored by Vitamin Water. After queuing for over an hour (couldn’t complain, I had won the tickets), we went into the Roundhouse to find ourselves inside a fantastically intimate venue, colourfully backlit from VIP, above the semi-circular standing area. Supporting acts were a four-man electro pop band from Brighton called The Special Ks (no link to the cereal!), which were energetic but lacked in variety and at times struggled to maintain the audience’s interest. Mr Hudson was somewhat more successful at warming up the crowd with a phenomenal DJ set, before Jessie J came bursting on stage to ‘Do It Like A Dude’.
After a couple of energy-filled tracks, Jessie mentioned how she’d been nervous all day for her performance and spoke a little about the infectious atmosphere in London, surrounding the Olympics; giving across a genuine, down-to-earth personality. The crowd, all competition winners through Twitter, Spotify, and Jessie J’s website, were mostly female, and amongst us was (a not-so-sober) Becky Hill from Jessie’s team on The Voice alongside several Olympic athletes.
Things really kicked off when she sang ‘Mama Knows Best’, which had the crowd dancing and singing along, and really highlighted her vocal ability. She then sat down on stage to talk about her experiences that led her to writing ‘Who You Are’ which she intimately performed to give credit to the song’s message and captivated the audience with ease. This was soon followed by ‘Stand Up’, which had the crowd jumping up on the chorus. We were also wowed with two covers, Luther Vandross’ ‘Never Too Much’, which animated audience members of all ages, and ‘Climax’, which showed off the incredible power of her voice – she certainly gave Usher a run for his money.
Against instruction to not overrun, Jessie continued to deliver a thoroughly entertaining two hour set of almost all tracks on her album, even taking time to introduce her band and chat to the audience. ‘Price Tag’ and ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ were big hits with the crowd, and she topped the evening off with ‘Laserlight’ and ‘Domino’ as a lively encore to an outstanding performance. She said she is currently in the process of writing her second album.
